October 8th, 1803: the anniversary of the death of Vittorio Alfieri The great playwright, poet and writer resting in Santa Croce in Florence

Vittorio Alfieri is considered the greatest tragic poet of the Italian eighteenth century and, as if he was the protagonist of one of his tragic opera, he had a rather adventurous life, largely due also to his “tormented” character, an aspect that helped make him a precursor of “romantic” anxieties.

He was less than a year old when he lost his father and at age nine he entered the Royal Academy of Turin, but he could not stand the rigidity of military discipline, and came out in 1766. In 1775 his first tragedy was staged , “Cleopatra”, and the success that followed opened the doors of the Italian theater to him. In the following years he wrote a great deal, about twenty tragedies, such as “Filippo”, “Polinice”, “Antigone”, “Virginia”, “Agamennone”, “Oreste”, “La congiura de’ Pazzi”, “Don Garzia”, “Maria Stuarda”, “Rosmunda”, “Alceste seconda” and with these he became the perfect role model for young writers. He translated a number of Latin texts and devoted himself to the Italian classics, from Dante to Tasso.

It was in 1778 that he left Piedmont and moved to Tuscany, first to Siena and then to Florence. In 1777 he met Luisa, Princess of Stolberg and Countess of Albany; their relationship caused a great scandal because the countess was married and her husband was Carlo Edoardo Stuart, pretender to the throne of England and many years older than her. The Countess of Albany became Alfieri’s companion and to her he devoted many of his “Rime”. On the 8th of October, 1803, at just 54 years old, Vittorio Alfieri died in Florence, attended by Luisa Stolberg who commissioned to Antonio Canova Afieri’s tomb in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence.

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